hi folks,
I'd like to know why there is not a way to get bio deisel in edinburgh. Can anyone help with this?
I'm up for co-organising this or whatever...
I just did a permaculture design course where I learned loads of stuff and got a few films away with me and a cd rom of slide shows of 'how to' do lots of different things eg build your own lavvie 1001 ways. One or two of the movie files don't seem to want to open on my computer so someone with a spanner may be required to retrieve them were it deemed useful to do so, as it were

I think we are having a meeting next week (Tuesday), though I won't be able to make it. Come along and discuss this, as it is an interesting topic.

I'm not convinced that biodiesel/bioethanol is a good solution to declining fossil fuel supplies and CO2 levels. In one hand, biofuels are better than conventional fuels as they are made from existing atmospheric CO2, so they don't add to these levels in the way that burning fossil fuels does.

Another reason why there is support for biofuels is that they can be easily plugged in to the existing fuel infrastructure. You can put 5% biofuels into the pumps and no one will notice. Some cars can even run on 100% biofuels.

But, biofuels are not an efficient use of solar energy (sun to plants to oil to energy) compared to solar panels (sun to energy), although they are cheaper currently.

And the main problem I have with them is that they use up land which is either not being used for farming or is being used for food production. Brazil is chopping down rain forest to grow plants for biofuels (so bad from a CO2 point of view). And it is becoming the new cash crop, grown for the West by the developing world, when people in the developing world should be growing food for themselves, not fuel for us.

If biofuels are to replace fossil fuels (and have the biggest impact on CO2 levels), then the world would not have enough food. So either way, they are not a real solution from what I can see. What do other people think?

Can you post your films somewhere or transfer them to another computer (e.g. shared folder on the Infoseed network)?

Most cooking oil is too viscose to be used as a direct replacement. One way to reduce the viscosity is to heat it. If you start an engine with normal diesel and use the heat generated to warm your vegetable oil, then switch to the vegetable oil, and switch back just before you turn off the engine, you can use vegetable oil without ruining your engine.

Yes. And I agree with the Swith about the whole industrial thing and the rainforests and whatnot.

But I think the recycling of old oil is a cool thing to do, even if you do have to pay tax on it. I def think the gov'ment should make an exception there, and would support any campaign regarding such a thing.